1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to computer systems. More particularly, methods and apparatus for the concurrent component test execution and component test result logging in an enterprise computer system.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Enterprises today need to extend their reach, reduce their costs, and lower their response times by providing easy-to-access services to their customers, partners, employees, and suppliers. Typically, applications that provide these services must combine existing enterprise information systems (EIS) with new business functions that deliver services to a broad range of users. These services need to be highly available in order to meet the needs of today""s global business environment secure so as to protect the privacy of users and the integrity of enterprise data, as well as both reliable and scalable to insure that business transactions are accurately and promptly processed. For a variety of reasons, these services are generally configured as distributed applications consisting of several tiers, including clients on the front end, data resources on the back end, and one or more middle tiers between them where the majority of the application development work is done. The middle tier implements the new services that integrate existing EISs with the business functions and data of the new service. The middle tier shields the client tier from the complexity of the enterprise and takes advantage of rapidly maturing Internet technologies to minimize user administration and training.
One approach to constructing such an enterprise computing system is to use component based, multi-tier applications based on, for example, Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. As well known in the art, J2EE is a Java platform designed for the mainframe-scale computing typical of large enterprises representing a multi-tier design that simplifies developing, deploying, and maintaining enterprise applications. IN this regard, J2EE has been designed to simplify application development in a thin client tier environment by simplifying application development and decreasing the need for programming and programmer training by creating standardized, reusable modular components and by enabling the tier to handle many aspects of programming automatically. It enables developers to focus on the specifics of programming their business logic, relying on the J2EE server to provide system services, and client-side applications (both stand alone and within web browsers) to provide the user interaction. Once developed, business logic can be deployed on servers appropriate to existing needs of an organization.
J2EE includes a number of components such as Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) that is a server-based technology for the delivery of program components in an enterprise environment, Java servlet application program interfaces that enhances consistency for developers without requiring a graphical user interface, and Java Server Pages (that is the Java equivalent to Microsoft""s Active Server Pages) is used for dynamic Web-enabled data access and manipulation.
Compatibility is one of the keys to the success of the J2EE and one of the factors that make it so productive for IT organizations. With this in mind, J2EE platform vendors will need to verify that their implementations conform to the J2EE platform specification. Toward that end, what is referred to as a J2EE Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) has been developed by Sun Microsystems that ensures consistent implementation across various vendor offerings. For application developers, this means full portability for enterprise applications. The CTS includes tests for all classes and methods required by the J2EE specification as well as end-to-end tests to check that all layers of a J2EE application will interact correctly and consistently. In this way, the CTS helps ensure that Enterprise JavaBeans components, JavaServer Pages, and servlets that run on one vendor""s J2EE branded configuration will run on every J2EE branded configuration. In this way, the CTS assures enterprises and developers that APIs and development features are available in the branded implementation and work in a uniform way. As currently configured, however, when a distributed test is run, the test results are not returned until after the particular test has completed running. In those cases where, for example, the server has gone down, the information generated to that point is lost.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous and therefore desirable to have the capability of concurrently executing a distributed test and dynamically returning the associated output.
Broadly speaking, the invention relates to an improved method, apparatus and computer system for concurrently performing a component test with returning test result data in an enterprise computing environment. In one embodiment, a method of concurrently performing a distributed test with returning test result data in a distributed environment is disclosed. In general, when performing a distributed test, a test application program makes an initial connection to the server component being tested that, in response, creates a connection to a logging listener. In response, the logging listener spawns an acceptor corresponding to the component being tested. Once spawned, the server component being tested returns corresponding test data to its associated acceptor concurrently with the execution of the test.